Heart Chamber Orchestra is an audio-visual performance during which 12 classical trained musicians control a music composition and a graphical visualization through their personal heartbeats.

The musical score is generated in real-time by the heartbeats of the musicians, who read and play this score from a computer screen placed in front of them. As a result, the installation forms a feedback loop in which the music literally “comes from the heart”. Technically, each musician is equipped with an ECG (electrocardiogram) sensor. A computer monitors and analyzes the state of the 12 hearts in real-time. The acquired information is then used to compose a musical score with the aid of custom-made computer software. While the musicians are playing, their heartbeats influence and change the composition and vice versa. In addition, abstract computer graphic imagery is generated to establish another sensual and narrative layer.